The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire • 2011 • 2 episodes • 1h:26m

Explores Japan's ambitious but destructive attempts to lead the whole of Asia out from the shadow of European and American dominance. Recounting the events of the most significant global conflict in the history of mankind and its equally dramatic aftermath, this two-part special investigates new and challenging insights into a battle that shaped the Asia-Pacific region. From the expansion its sphere of influence in 1895, with the installation of a puppet government in Korea, to the destruction of Pearl Harbour, discover how Japan's burgeoning power in Asia soon brought it into direct conflict with the West culminating in the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Focusing on the traumas suffered by the Korean, Chinese, South East Asian and Japanese people as they lived through four decades of bloody conflict, this compelling documentary tells the dramatic story of a proud and ambitious warrior nation, which ultimately paid a terrible price for its audacity.

Part 1

A great short history of the Japanese Empire, from the early mediaeval strife of the time of the code of the Samurai which carried through to to the opening of Japan to Western trade. There's good detail on how Japan began to rely on its military caste and its deification of its Emperor. The search for Empire is its very undoing as the military seize political power and begins to rival the colossus of the USA for domination of Asia, a disastrous policies that ends beneath the foreboding mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

S1E1 • 2011 • History

Part 2

A great short history of the Japanese Empire, from the early mediaeval strife of the time of the code of the Samurai which carried through to to the opening of Japan to Western trade. There's good detail on how Japan began to rely on its military caste and its deification of its Emperor. The search for Empire is its very undoing as the military seize political power and begins to rival the colossus of the USA for domination of Asia, a disastrous policies that ends beneath the foreboding mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

S1E2 • 2011 • History